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Masters of the mountain
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-13 15:27 CRAIG Lowndes and Jamie Whincup once more proved themselves the masters of the mountain with a flawless display of pace and power to win their third successive Bathurst 1000. Lowndes was at the wheel of the Triple Eight Racing Falcon in the closing stages as he held off a late charge from the New Zealand-crewed Tasman Motorsport Commodore driven by four-time Bathurst winner Greg Murphy and his countryman Jason Richards. The pair had touched on the very first lap of the 6.5-hour marathon as Murphy and Lowndes diced for position, Murphy afterwards complaining that the incident had cost him dearly as the steering arm of his Holden had been damaged. He felt strongly enough about the incident to confront Lowndes during the day after both drivers had finished their opening stints. "I was a bit pissed at the start of the race to be honest … we ran with a bent steering arm for 161 laps," he said. But while he was adamant he and Richards had been hampered as a result, he could not say they would have won in different circumstances. In an exhilarating finale after a succession of late safety car interludes Murphy got past another New Zealander, Steve Richards in the Ford Performance Racing Commodore he shared with Mark Winterbottom, with three laps to go. But Murphy -- whose lap record set five years ago still stands -- could not hunt down the Triple Eight Falcon as Lowndes brought the Ford home alone up front. Richards was struggling with his car in the closing stages and another hard charger, James Courtney, in the Stone Brothers Racing Falcon he shared with David Besnard, got past him late to snatch third. It was the third time in three years that Courtney has made the podium at Mount Panorama (the second time alongside co-driver Besnard), although he has yet to stand on the top step. Richards and Winterbottom, who were desperate to atone for their failure last year, had to settle for fourth, ahead of the outsiders Max Wilson and Brad Jones in the BJR Commodore, with last year's third-placed duo, Will Davison and Steve Johnson, sixth in the DJR Falcon. This was the first time in 24 years -- since the halcyon era of the legendary Peter Brock, Lowndes' mentor -- that a driver has won Australia's (and one of the world's) most testing races three times in a row. An emotional Lowndes said it was a historic performance. "We have set something in stone today. It is history for the modern era," he said. As a bonus, the win pushes Whincup to the top of the championship standings and goes to the Gold Coast in a fortnight for the 11th of the championship's 14 rounds with 2316 points, a narrow lead over second-placed Winterbottom on 2283. Sunday's pole-sitter, Garth Tander, who endured a nightmare race after his clutch failed at the start, has lost his championship lead and slips to third with 2234 points. Lowndes is fourth in the standings, but adrift of the front trio on 1923. While for Tander it was a day to forget -- he managed to pull the HRT Commodore up into the top 10 only for it to slide out of contention when teammate Mark Skaife went into the wall on lap 103 -- days do not get any better for Whincup or Lowndes. For a modest Whincup, who said with some self-deprecation: "I consider myself just an average punter who gets around all right", this was the best of all three wins. "It means everything -- 2006 was an amazing day, last year was even more special, but to go three in a row … how to explain it, it's pretty special. "We had all the pieces of the puzzle worked out, but you need a little bit of luck … to win the biggest race of the year three years in a row with the competition that's around is very, very special." Lowndes said the pace of the car reminded him of his Falcon three years ago, when he was on pole. "The car this weekend resembled the '05 year when we had great speed from the outset. We shared the load, it's been a really clean weekend," he said. "It's a credit for the team to pull it all together in such a short time. I had 10 years between my first and second wins and then to have three in a row …" Murphy who, ironically, was Lowndes' partner when the pair won for the first time each in an HRT Commodore back in 1996 could only rue what might have been. "We had a good car and it came on really good in the last stint. With a lap and three-quarters to go the engine went off and I had to nurse it home, but I was looking forward to trying to latch on to the back of Lowndesy." Richards added: "It's not about high-risk manoeuvres, it's about having a good car beneath you. The damaged steering was really handicapping us and we managed to tune the car in pretty good really with what we had to work with." Courtney is leaving Stone Brothers Racing at the end of the season to join Dick Johnson Racing and was delighted to have snared third place after looking to be out of contention mid-race. "We had some dramas with the front tyres when David (Besnard) was driving. I jumped in at the end and charged through them and came away with a podium again."
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